Something
by DC Luder
Summary: Dick intrudes on Barbara's solitude.  Bludhaven's Summer Tournament entry for Barbara Gordon.


Title: Something...

Author: DC Luder

Summary: Dick intrudes on Barbara's solitude.

Rating: T

Infringement: All recognizable characters belong to DC Comics, not DC Luder. Lyrics to Something by George Harrison.

Author's Note: Bludhaven Summer Tournament Round 2 - Barbara Gordon!

^V^

_Something in the way she moves..._

Studying her from the fire escape, I smiled as Barbara fruitlessly redid her ponytail. Even though she spent most of her days in the cool, climate controlled air of the Clocktower, she had it cut short for the summer. Short enough that the ends barely reached her shoulder, making putting it up a task in itself. I called her Scully upon discovering her new look two weeks earlier. She said that if had mine cut a little shorter, I could have been her Mulder.

Naturally, I had promptly asked if she had any scissors handy.

_Attracts me like no other lover._

Since I had been a prepubescent, I seemed to only have eyes for her. There had been others that had nearly swayed my interest from my favorite librarian turned vigilante turned cyber networking goddess. But in the end, I had always found myself coming back to Barbara. Robin and Batgirl was almost as catchy as Batman and Catwo-.

_Something in the way she woos me._

"Dick, you do realize I can see you, right?" her voice came playfully over the comm. link.

I looked to see she was staring directly at me, fighting back a smile as she spoke into a handheld Oracom device.

"I do now..."

"Well, either get better at peeping through my living room window or let yourself in."

"Yes, ma'am," I replied before carefully unlocking the window. There was an electric lock as well, but Barbara had obviously already deactivated it because I wasn't electrocuted and sent flailing to my death on the street far below.

_I don't want to leave her now..._

"Decided not to work tonight?" I inquired.

"Who says I'm not working?"

I observed her for a moment. She looked as if she was ready for bed, dressed in dark blue sweat pants, rolled to mid calf in addition to a white and teal tank top. Her contacts must have been out already as her silver rimmed glasses rested on the crown of her head. Instead of buried deep into electronic criminal records, she had a new paperback book sitting on the couch beside her, the book mark not fifty pages in.

"Hmm, pajamas, some book you ordered off of the Amazon top sellers list and... is that Beatles playing on the iPod dock in the hall?"

"Aren't you quite the detective," she set the handheld down on the end table beside the couch, "It's three in the morning. Gotham is remotely quiet. Bruce has been ignoring me most of the night anyway, figured I could catch up on some me time."_You know I believe and how._

"Rest _for _the weary," I smirked before taking the arm chair opposite of her. Where it had always been Bruce's motto to never sit while in his guise, I was a firm believer of resting my feet, especially in a cozy Conor recliner.

Barbara shrugged, "Might as well take advantage of it... meanwhile, what brings you to our fair city? Bludhaven not doing it for you tonight?"

Removing my mask, I set on the arm of the chair, "Oh it did... just decided to drop by... maybe con someone into taking me in, making me breakfast in bed in the morning."

She glanced at her watch, "Alfred's probably asleep, I'd wait until five-thirty before asking him." When I stared at her in disbelief, she grinned.

_Somewhere in her smile she knows..._"Joking aside, I probably shouldn't crash the Manor... not if Bruce is in a bad mood."

Barbara shook her head, "I didn't say he was in a bad mood, he just has been himself lately, a little too much of himself really."

"How so?"

Leaning back into the couch, she answered, "I think he has been having trouble as Bruce Wayne. Big financial week for Wayne Enterprises, broke up with his supermodel girlfriend, missed golfing with the mayor because of a thunderstorm yesterday..."

"Woe is him," I shook my head, trying not to laugh at the accumulated misfortune of my adopted father. A bad week for Batman involved inmates breaking out of the asylum, drug wars in the streets and police strikes. Bruce's bad week obviously trumped that.

_That I don't need no other lover._

"Supermodel girlfriend, hunh?"

"Anastasia something... She was nineteen. He's almost forty. I'm surprised it lasted four months let alone a long weekend," she bluntly replied.

"Nineteen? Damn... although I bet it was easier to pull his 'last minute meeting' departure act with her."

"Or not sleeping over in fear of her father's wrath," Barbara quipped.

_Something in her style that shows me._

I laughed at that, trying to picture playboy Bruce Wayne trying to stand up against a Russian super model's overbearing father. Something told me that Bruce would go fairly far into a reaming out, verbal and physical, to preserve his identity.

"I'm so behind in the gossip column," I ran a hand through my hair, "You'll have to catch me up to speed."

"After I make you breakfast."

"Well, if you want to..."

"And after I let you sleep on my couch."

I winked at her, "I was thinking for more bed like accommodations."

She tossed a pillow at me, "Dream on, boy blunder. You are more than welcome to the guest room... or better yet, your own room in your own home."

_I don't want to leave her now,_"Home is where the heart is, Babs," I paused to put on the best sleazy leer possible while putting a hand over my chest, "And my heart is here."

"Your heart is about to be broken, I'm afraid."

Sighing, I responded, "It's already broken... No love, no breakfast, no embarrassing stories about Bruce... There may be no recovering from this."

The second pillow she threw caught me upside the head, bouncing off before taking out a lamp. When she started to blame me for not catching it, I said, "Hey, no throwing things in the house."

"Apartment."

"Home," I smirked, rising to my feet.

"Richard John," she warned as I knelt before her.

"Barbara Louise," I said before biting my lip.

_You know I believe and how._"Me time, not you time."

"Us time," I whispered, moving in to kiss her.

As I paused just before making contact, she replied, "Don't make me call Alfred."

"You won't, he's sleeping."

_You're asking me will my love grow..._

As my lips found hers, I felt her trying to fight back another smile as well as the urge to kiss me back. It had been over a year since I had proposed to her, and not much less than that since she had decided to give my ring back. In an ideal world, we would be able to live happily ever after but unfortunately we lived in a world that was anything but.

"Dick," she said while pulling back.

I pressed my cheek to hers, whispering into her left ear, "Yes?"

"I don't know..."

_I don't know, I don't know._

"I do," I replied, putting my lips to work on her ear lob before making my way down her neck to her exposed collar bone.

"What if Bruce calls... what if he needs me..."

"I need you," I responded before tracing my way back up her neck, finding her lips as my hands found her waist.

_Stick around, and it may show..._

She bit my lip briefly before drawing away again, putting her hands on my chest in order to push me back. "If he calls... you're answering."

"Okay."

"And you're explaining why I didn't answer."

I hesitated before agreeing, "Fine."

_But I don't know, I don't know._I lifted her up off the couch, carrying her to the master bedroom with my arms secure around her shoulders and under her legs. Barbara finally took the initiative to kiss me, the tentativeness ebbing away every second. That was exactly why there was no time to waste, we were only granted brief moments of happiness, of bliss. Seconds, minutes, maybe even an hour if the gods were smiling down on us.

_Something in the way she knows..._

And although brief, it was always worth it. To be with her, to be happy. To forget about life and all the horrible tragedies it had brought us over the years.

_And all I have to do is think of her._

Something as simple as her lips melding with mine, her eyes rolling at my jokes, the way her hair was too short for a ponytail and would be until late September.

_Something in the things she shows me._

Setting her down on the pristinely made bed, I hovered over her on my hands and knees. "Scully," I whispered into her neck as I began pushing up her tank top, "This is quite the mystery..."

_I don't want to leave her now._

She laughed out loud as I began commenting on the natural and unnatural forces working together in her room.

_You know I believe and how._

Something told me it would be breakfast in bed after all.

^V^


End file.
